Amy X Neuburg collaborates with the wonderful and versatile Solstice vocal ensemble to present her Fill as Desired (original title Beliebig Füllen) song cycle for female voices with live looping electronics. Sung in English, German and Czech, the songs are based on recipes that were collected by women in the Terezin concentration camp, cleverly layered with Amy’s own texts on fantasy as a means of survival. The music draws from Eastern European folk, German lieder, Weimar cabaret, and the avant-garde, and features Amy as vocalist and looping electronics performer, recording and overdubbing eight voices into a thick multi-layered, multi-language chorus.

Listen to an excerpt:

The award-winning Solstice ensemble is known for their brilliant renditions of a cappella world music, classical, pop, and everything in between. Amy composed the song cycle specifically for them. Solstice is Emily Bender, Becca Burrington, Lark Coryell, Krista Enos, Mari Marjamaa, Kim Warsaw, and Sara Webb-Schmitz.

The Jewish Music Festival originally commissioned Fill as Desired for their 2006 program (at Berkeley Rep Theater) and is a co-sponsor of the new expanded version. The cycle has been performed at the Freight & Salvage, the Women on the Way Festival, Brava Theater, the JCC of the East Bay, Subterranean Arthouse, San Geronimo Community Center and numerous house concerts.

NOW IN RECORDING! Fill as Desired will be available in 2015. Help out with a small donation!

KQED FM news feature on Fill as Desired, November 2012.

[Photos by Kevin Johnson.]